Suffering Is Also an Asset

《痛苦也是財富》

There's no rose without a thorn. This thought is absolutely necessary to prepare you toexperience less pain and more joy in your journey of life.

人生固然有歡樂，但也一定不乏痛苦。有了這種認識和思想準備也是非常必要的，因為這樣會使你的生活增加歡樂而減少痛苦。

With a bird's-eye view, you may realize something meaningful. During your school years, whilejoyfully acquiring knowledge you are also under the pressure of homework, examinations, andranking. You face crises and agony. Meanwhile, all sorts of intricate affairs may happenbetween you and your classmates. In your youth, puberty may fill you with unrealized desiresand send you into deeper perplexity.

鳥瞰人生，可略有領悟。上學時，有獲得知識的樂趣，便有做功課、考試、排名次的危機與痛苦。同樣，也有同學間相處的融合與糾結。青年時，春心萌動，幻想聯翩，難以實現，亦難免陷入困擾。

Entering marriage, you are actually in the center of all the contradictions—the matching ofdifferent personalities, enduring of family members, children's schooling, financial managementand so on, you may also fall into marriage crisis. As you age, your health may deteriorate andvarious troubles in your career and family may gradually emerge. Mid-life and old-age crisis willfollow, leading you to your eternity.

結婚之后，實際進入了更多的矛盾之中;思想的落差、相處的困難、子女的教育、財務的爭執等等，也會陷入婚姻危機。隨后，年齡愈大，健康愈差，事業、家庭中的許多潛在矛盾會日益突出，因而又會有中年危機和老年危機，直至步入死亡。

We may therefore conclude that much of our life may not be spent in contentment. However, the things that discontent are, in fact, not useless since you may learn more from them thanfrom the things that cheered you up.

所以說，人生在世，如意的事不足一二，不如意的則十有八九。但這“八九”不是負擔，而是有用的，因為人在痛苦中所學到的，要比在歡樂中所學到的多得多。

As the saying goes, "It seems to be a perpetual rule that flops are produced elatedly andmasterpieces painstakingly". To put it vividly, the great historian Sima Qian had a view eventwo thousand years ago: "When Emperor Wen of Zhou Dynasty was arrested, he produced theclassic Zhou Yi Jing; Confucius wrote the History of Spring and Autumn while he wasexperiencing adversity; Qu Yuan produced his monumental long poem, On EncounteringSorrow, during his exile. When Zuo Qiu lost his sight and Sun Zi had his feet chopped off, theyedited their writings and stratagems. After Lü Buwei was forced to live in Shu, the valuable TheBook of Lü was fortunately handed down to posterity. Similarly, when Han Feizi was imprisonedin Qin, On Difficulty and On Resentment—two precious books—were written by him. Threehundred Classic Poems were also produced in roughly the same way, where the writers' heartswere smouldering in the doldrums with no way out: they therefore conveyed everything inwords, narrating the past and contemplating the future".

“自古歡愉釀糟糠，從來痛苦出杰作”。對此，司馬遷早在兩千多年前便有精彩論述：“蓋西伯拘而演《周易》;仲尼厄而作《春秋》;屈原放逐，乃賦《離騷》;左丘失明，厥有《國語》;孫子臏腳，《兵法》修列;不韋遷蜀，世傳《呂覽》;韓非囚秦，《說難》、《孤憤》;《詩》三百篇，大氐賢圣發憤只所為作也。此人皆有所郁結，不得通其道，故述往事，思來者”。

Let's treat all the sufferings at every stage of life as assets which can only do us good.

所以，讓我們把人生每一階段上的痛苦，都當做自己的寶貴財富吧。